which any student can discover in his text book. The facts upon which Section 14, which refers to the various acts of Parliament attempting to regulate colonial trade and colonial government, is based, the student can again discover by consulting his history; while the last four grievances which complain of acts done by the king since the outbreak of the Revolution can be analysed with the greatest facility. The conclusion of the Declaration needs no special study. It follows naturally from the preamble, and from the statement of grievances which Jefferson and his colleagues now considered as proved. The irony, conscious or unconscious, of Jefferson’s use of the exact language of the Declaratory Act of 1766, always impresses the student when the comparison is made clear (Macdonald, Charters, p. 316). Another fruitful comparison is with the Dutch Act of Abjuration, of July 24, 1581 (Old South Leaflets, No. 72). The student should be required to know exactly the language of the most significant phrases of the conclusion; indeed, certain striking and important phrases throughout the Declaration may very well be set to the students for exact memorization. European History in the Secondary School D. C. KNOWLTON, PH.D., Editor. THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE TRANSITION TO THE RENAISSANCE. Arrangement of Topics. The order in which the main topics shall be presented to the class is settled in part for the teacher by the particular text-book in use. In fact, this feature of a book may have been an important factor in its selection. Almost every possible combination of topics may be found in the text-books now on the market, ranging all the way from the strictly chronological presentation of the events to an apparent disregard of the time element altogether. Among the former are to be found authors who, though endeavoring to follow the chronological order seek so to bind together the events of a given century or more that they may be considered as one great topic. Such attempts at generalization, however, may prove misleading to the student. Almost any book, if rightly used, allows the teacher a little latitude not only in the choice of topics, but also in the order of presentation. If the teacher skips about too much it may lead to misconception and confusion on the part of the student. If, however, the text-book and the library facilities at the command of the teacher allow of considerable freedom in respect to order, it is at the best a very perplexing question to settle. It may be a comparatively easy matter to reach a conclusion as to the order of the first few topics, say to the revival of the empire by Otto I, but from that time forward to the Renaissance so many combinations and arrangements are possible that it becomes increasingly difficult to hit upon an order which is entirely satisfactory. The Crusades, for example, may be considered before the teacher has